Footed Bowl with Arabesque Decoration

CulturePersian

Date13th century

MediumFritware, under-glaze cobalt slip painting, and over-glaze painting with clear lead glaze

DimensionsOverall: 3 7/8 × 8 1/2 inches (9.84 × 21.59 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: acquired through the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Milton McGreevy through the Mission Fund

Object numberF72-32

On View

Not on view

Collections

South and Southeast Asian Art

Terms

Exhibition History

The Heritage of Islam: an exhibition organized by the National Committee to Honor the 14^th Centennial of Islam, Houston Museum of Natural Science, March 10–May 30, 1982; The California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, July 2, 1982–January 2, 1983; Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, February 26–April 24, 1983; National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., June 1–September 5, 1983, no. 11 as Ceramic Bowl.

Echoes: Islamic Art and Contemporary Artists, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, August 31, 2013-April 27, 2014, no cat.

Gallery Label

The brilliant blue color of this bowl is matched by its exuberant decoration of scrolling, overlapping vines. Loose, black, calligraphic lines outline white curving stems and split leaves, the characteristic elements of Islamic arabesque decoration. While Chinese porcelains commonly come to mind when thinking of blue and white ceramics, the use of cobalt slip against a white or light ground was first developed in the Islamic lands, by 9^th century potters in Basra, Iraq.

Provenance

With Galerie für Grieschische, Römische, und Byzantische Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany, by 1972;

Purchased from Galerie für Grieschische, Römische, und Byzantische Kunst by Milton (1903-1980) and Barbara (née James, 1905-1996) McGreevy, Shawnee Mission, KS, 1972;

Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kanas City, MO, 1972.

Published References

National Committee to Honor the Fourteenth Centennial of Islam, Patterns and Precision, the arts and sciences of Islam, exh. cat. (National Committee to Honor the Fourteenth Centennial of Islam: Washington, D. C., 1982), 49.

Thomas W. Lippman, “Cultural Heritage of Islam through Fourteen Centures,” Smithsonian 14, no. 3 (June 1983): 66, 68, (repro.).

Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 399, (repro.).

Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 27, fig. 12, (repro.).

Robert Cohon et al. Ceramics: Highlights from the Collection of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2016), 44-45, (repro.).

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